In reply to Eric Walker's message of Tue, 23 Apr 2013 19:48:20 -0700: Hi, [snip] >I think you're addressing a specific point. It's interesting to note that >unless there's a gamma thermalization mechanism, this kind of reaction will >both be deadly and will not result in much heat. I suspect it is the >kinetic energy of the decay products that causes the majority of heat.
1) The excited state is likely to decay in a number of steps, the sum of which is 9 MeV. That means that for each reaction there would be multiple gammas produced with varying energies. 2) The lower the energy of a gamma, the greater the absorption coefficient. IOW a larger percentage of low energy gammas are absorbed than of high energy gammas for any given material thickness. 3) Rossi uses (or used) 2 cm of lead shielding, which would stop enough of the gammas to convert a useable percentage of the energy to heat. 4) The majority or the gammas would nevertheless escape, and have not been measured, and Rossi would be dead, which he isn't. 5) Consequently, it is highly unlikely that neutron capture is the energy generating mechanism (if indeed there is one) in Rossi's device. Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
